Kitchen worktops in Ashburton

Yes. Estate-built semis and terraces with the original small rear kitchen, usually a 2.6-3m run with a larder recess. Owners here mostly replace worktops and doors rather than move walls, so the units stay and the stone has to work around existing cut-outs. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. Panels come off the van in one trip where possible, since a tall piece handled repeatedly is a piece asking to be chipped. The crate stays on the van until the route in is clear.

inter-war semi, post-war estate housing, 1960s terrace and low-rise flats. The under-stair cupboard opens off the kitchen in most of them, and its door swing is the reason a corner run stops where it does. Access is usually the easy part here, as most of these have a side gate and a back door straight into the kitchen, so we carry down the side alley rather than through the house and keep the mess outside. Fixings go into what the wall actually is.

Wide roads with verges and unrestricted parking, so the van gets close; most houses have a short concrete path and a low front wall rather than a drive. Everything comes through the front door and down the hall, so the tightest point on the route is usually the newel post at the foot of the stairs. Finding it out on the morning costs the whole slot, because there is no second route to fall back on. The crew size follows from it.

Worktop replacement, worktop installation and worktop splashbacks & upstands, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. The fitting day is scheduled to suit that rather than to suit the diary. The prep list is not optional. Reusing existing carcasses means the old laminate has to come off without wrecking the units, and any belfast sink or overhanging hob needs the cabinet rails checked for level first.

A window at one end and a doorway at the other means one end of the run is lit from behind and the other is interrupted, so the two ends of the same length behave differently. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. Laminate hides what the gables are really doing. Once the carcasses are levelled the gap under the plinth varies along the run, and that varying gap is the honest record of what the floor is doing. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. A filler strip is evidence, not decoration. The stone itself starts at £110 per square metre supply only, with templating, fabrication and fitting quoted on their own lines instead of rolled together.

Consent for the work sits with the freeholder or the managing body, and getting it in writing first avoids a crew arriving to a locked door. The fitting day is arranged with whoever can actually give us access for the whole slot. Emptying the room belongs to the keyholder, not the crew. Tell us about the building at the point of booking, so the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice are allowed for in advance.

On the fitting day floors and door frames are protected, joins clamped flush, sink and hob sealed. The same firm templates and fits. Nobody else is brought in to install. The fitting itself is one visit: a plain run is a morning, an island with splashbacks takes most of the day. The original plan put a larder and a back door on the same wall, and both leave awkward stubs once the room is opened up. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the job is a day, and what makes it a difficult day is the building. Water damage under a sink is the usual find.

An old stone top is heavier coming out than the new one is going in, and leaves in sections. The carcasses stay. Only the surface changes. On a replacement the old top comes off in the morning and the new stone is down and sealed the same day. Unrestricted does not mean empty, and a street that is clear at seven is usually full by nine. Upstands travel in a crate and can wait on the van, which gives some flexibility a full-height panel does not. Distance from tail lift to door is the whole risk here.

Dark and heavily veined stone shows a join more than a pale even one, which is worth knowing before the slab is picked. An island often runs in one piece where a wall run cannot. A join cannot cross a cut-out, so a sink mid-run takes away the position you would have used. The two runs are rarely the same length, and the shorter one often carries the sink, which puts the cut-outs in the piece with the least material to spare. Old laminate has often been holding a run square for years, and taking it off shows what the units were really doing. A corner that was butted can be mitred this time.

Machining is permanent. If a later kitchen moves the sink, the grooves stay where they were cut. They are cut with a fall towards the bowl, which is why they cannot be added on site later. A shallow bay or a squared-off rear window means the run beneath it is rarely the same depth at both ends. Taking the old tops off is also the first honest look at what has been going on underneath them. Cutting the old top out saves the units below it.